SoundPostCreations

Music for Strings and Beyond

Biography

When I was in fourth grade, my parents encouraged me to play a string instrument, and so I signed up for the string program at North Frederick Elementary School in Frederick, MD. I believe I was expected to take up the violin. However, as Calvin Wacker, the instrumental music instructor, went down the row, asking which instrument we wanted to play, I heard a classmate named Steve say he wanted to play the cello. At that moment, I decided that's what I wanted to play as well. Everybody was surprised, and maybe somewhat relieved that I chose cello. I remember my mom being somewhat thankful for my choice of a lower-pitched instrument. Those violins can be pretty squeaky in the hands of rank amateurs. 

Steve abandoned his cello a few years later, but I stuck with it. At Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, where Mr. Wacker also taught, I started taking music history and music theory courses from Mildred Trevvett. She was a gem, and the high school was lucky to have her, a committed teacher and pedagogue. This is where I learned music theory and started writing compositions. This was not an easy thing to do in the 1970s. Everything was hand-written on staff paper, and you had to be pretty darn good at the piano, and I never was. But, I did write a few compositions. In college, I wrote a few arrangements of show tunes and ragtime music. But, for a couple decades I turned my attention to my day job and my family.

Now with the kids out of the house, I undertook to learn Finale. That's a very steep learning curve, but, worth it. Over the past few years, my composing and arranging instincts have taken a strong hold of me. Most of my music is for groups of celli. I have well over 100 compositions and arrangements that I am going to post on SoundPostCreations@musicaneo.com

Thomas Zebovitz